The Heartbleed-centric hit to productivity -- certainly to mine -- is staggering. On how many websites does each of us have an account that suddenly needs a new password? While you tally those up, don't forget every long dormant etail account in which you ever paid with a credit card, or with which you may have used a password you're still using elsewhere. Sigh.

It's the kind of thing that makes one wonder about using a virtual currency -- if the recent travails of bitcoin haven't already convinced you.

Unfamiliar with virtual currencies like bitcoin? Very
briefly, a virtual currency is a digital asset class (a) created, maintained, exchanged, and stored by private parties outside the
normal banking system (b) independent of government monetary authorities.

A unit of virtual currency can be exchanged for conventional currency. Virtual currency can also be used directly (at only a few businesses, so far) to acquire goods and services. The most popular virtual currency is
bitcoin, units of which are created by solving math problems. Virtual currencies exist only on computers, and so are subject to a variety of
security risks -- as in, "Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies compromised by Pony botnet."

Back to bitcoin ... how messed up is it these days? Herewith a few references, beginning with Mt. Gox, the onetime leading exchange for bitcoins.

"Mt. Gox files for liquidation as Japan rejects rehab plans." To grasp the scope of the problem, note that "... the Mt. Gox case is nothing if not unusual. For one thing, it may have had as many as 1 million customers
before it went bust Feb. 28 with 850,000 bitcoin missing. It later said
it had found about 200,000 bitcoins in an old-format online wallet."

In the days of latent security holes like Heartbleed, it's nice to know the provenance of the software that underpins one's financial wellbeing. Even big banks have had their problems (reference, say, the 2008 financial mess), but a big bank or brokerage backstopped by the US Treasury does offer some comfort. That's one person's opinion, anyway ...

Amid such turmoil, it's hardly surprising that bitcoin values (as denominated in conventional currency like, say, the USD) have gyrated wildly. But the market provides. See "Swap agreement aims to protect Bitcoin holders from the next crash." That protection, of course, is only as useful as the ability of Tera Group, the outfit selling the related financial derivative instrument, to make good on others' losses.

What to read?

Non-US shoppers

Featured Post: A Milestone

On October 16, 2007, Fleet of Worlds was first published. That is: ten years ago to the day. Larry and Ed at 2015 Nebula weekend This...

Energized (Newly reissued!)

"A taut near-future thriller about an energy-starved Earth held hostage by a power-mad international cartel … Lerner’s vision of the future is both topical and possible in this crisp, fast-paced hard SF adventure.” —Publishers Weekly

Dark Secret (my latest)

"I heartily recommend Ed Lerner's Dark Secret" — Tangent Online

InterstellarNet: Enigma (I-Net #3)

"One of the most rewarding SF reading experiences anyone could ask for, on both an intellectual and emotional level." — Tangent Online

InterstellarNet: Origins (I-Net #1)

"One of the most original, believable, thoroughly thought-out, and utterly fascinating visions ever of what interstellar contact might really be like."— Stanley Schmidt, editor of Analog

A Time Foreclosed

"A nice little foray into the paradoxes of time travel" — SFRevu

Fate of Worlds (FOW #5)

“Brings to a stunning close a multivolume saga that has captured the imaginations of a multitude of readers … a story that will attract attention from series fans as well as readers of hard sf.” — Library Journal

Juggler of Worlds (FoW #2)

“A snazzy thriller/mystery that keeps us (and our hero) guessing until the very end ... Wide screen galactic scope, nifty super-science, crafty aliens, corporate corruption and cover ups, and a multi-leveled spy vs. spy vs. spy mystery with little being as it first appears make Juggler of Worlds a first class exemplar of pure SF entertainment.” —SFsite

Fleet of Worlds (FoW #1)

" ... Needs recommending within the science fiction community about as much as a new Harry Potter novel does – well, anywhere." —Locus

ARMAGEDDON / PARADISE -- two books in one

"A romp through time and history ... an intriguing selection." — Bookloons

Small Miracles

"Suspense and action enough to fuel any thriller, and even to drive it to the big screen." —SFrevu

Fools' Experiments

“When the artificial intelligences ... go maverick, they turn out to be the true weapons of mass destruction. A fast, fun read.” — Sci Fi Weekly

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About Me

I'm a physicist and computer scientist (and an MBA, of less relevance to most of these posts). After thirty years in industry, as everything from individual technical contributor to senior vice president, I now write full-time. Mostly I write science fiction and techno-thrillers, now and again throwing in a straight science or technology article.